Tethered Read Online Free PDF

are—several have been augmented with mechanical prosthetics and tools.”
    “Yes. I saw that as I came aboard.”
    “Then perhaps you fear being infected by one of us?”
    “No. It is simply a more intimate question than I was prepared to answer, Captain.”
    Ah. Of course a New Worlder would think so. “There’s nothing personal in my interest,” Yasmeen said dryly. “I simply want to be prepared.
Lady Nergüi
flies routes that other airships do not—including routes that will take us over Horde-occupied territories. If my quartermaster suddenly begins responding like an automaton, I’ll have a better idea of why it might have happened.”
    “Well, then.” She nodded. “Yes, I am.”
    “What strain?”
    “Ma’am?”
    “English, Moroccan, Egyptian? Some other tower? Obviously, if you have a Moroccan or English strain, you are in the clear,because those towers are gone. But others are still active, so if you are infected by bugs from Egypt or the territories in southern Africa, I will know to fly clear of their towers.”
    “English, I believe.” She blinked. “I didn’t realize they were different, ma’am.”
    Unsurprising. Of the New Worlders who had infected themselves, most could trace the nanoagents back to the Horde occupation in England—and most didn’t know that the towers operated at different frequencies.
    “Just be glad that the zombie strain is different,” Yasmeen said, and leaned forward to brace her elbows on the desk, satisfied with the interview. The woman hadn’t squirmed much, which pleased her. Yasmeen needed someone who could stand up to fierce scrutiny without flinching—and in the air, Yasmeen would be much harder on the woman than this.
    “All right,” she said. “After you sign your contract and stow your trunk, you’ll find the first mate, Mr. Longcock, on the deck.”
    Vashon grew very still. “Mr. Longcock?”
    Yasmeen smiled. “Many people on this ship have chosen their own names, and for their own reasons. I don’t question that—or whether it’s an accurate name.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” It emerged on a choked laugh.
    “Accurate or not, however, you won’t be required to identify him by that description. He’s the big one.”
    “The big one?” The quartermaster’s mouth rounded as she realized who Yasmeen meant. Of course she’d seen him on deck. George Longcock was impossible to overlook. “The one with…”
    “Guns grafted to his arms and chest, yes.”
    “A
lot
of guns, ma’am, if I can be so bold.”
    “There are more that you can’t see.” Yasmeen held in her laugh when the other woman’s face registered disbelief. She had to admit, her first sight of the man had struck her speechless, as well—though a part of her understood exactly what he’d done,
why
he’d done it. A factory builder in Horde-occupied England, he’d already been modified with steel arms. After the revolution, he’d added weapons to protecthimself. Then, after leaving England for the high seas, he’d added more…and hadn’t stopped.
    After the occupations, some people turned to the opium dens. Longcock had grafted weapons to his body. Yasmeen thought both reactions were exactly the same, in their own way.
    “I’ve asked him to walk with you through my lady,” Yasmeen continued. “In the weeks since we’ve left Lusitania, Longcock has acted as
Lady Nergüi
’s quartermaster—and he was quartermaster aboard
The Flying Spear
until a month ago. You’d do well to listen to him. He has rough edges, but he knows what he’s about.”
    Vashon nodded, then asked, “
The Flying Spear?
A pirate ship, ma’am?”
    “Quite a few pirate ships have come upon us lately, and many of them have experienced crews. I offer better pay, however, so some of those pirates now serve aboard my lady.”
    “If he was a quartermaster aboard
The Flying Spear
, why isn’t he yours?”
    She was already trying to figure out whether Longcock’s demotion would pose a problem, Yasmeen